Victoria Royals vs. Vancouver Giants WHL Playoffs – Round 2 – Game 3

April 10, 2019

The Royals opened the scoring, battled throughout the game with injuries to key players, capitalized on their scoring chances and Griffen Outhouse played remarkably well facing 57 shots. However, even with all those positives they ended up falling 5-4 in overtime to the visiting Vancouver Giants. A team that stayed focused and stuck with their game plan and given how many shots they had compared to the Royals it would have been easy to lose focus and become frustrated.

I share the photographer duties with Jay Wallace and before each game we discuss where each of us is going to shoot. We decided that Jay will shoot from between the benches for the first and third periods and I would for the second period and overtime.

I choose to spot to the left of the visiting goaltender for the first period to hopefully capture a Royals goal and so I can say hello to either Darren Stone or Adrian Lam my photographer friends at the Times Colonist newspaper. I shoot from this position with a 135mm f/2 and a 8-15mm f/4 both on a 1dxm2 and 5d mark 3. I find when shooting through the glass the quality of the 135mm f/2 is much better than my 70-200 f/2.8 especially when shooting on an angle.

For the second period and overtime I was between the benches shooting with a 70-200mm f/2.8 and 8-15mm f/4 and for the third period from the concourse level with the 300mm f/2.8 and 135mm f/2.

It is interesting now to look back and see how many photos came out of each position.

Besides the photography aspect of the game what stood out was the fitness and skating level of Giants defenceman Bowen Byrum who is projected to go in the first round of the NHL draft this year. As though as soon as Byrum was on the bench following a shift he was right back onto the ice for another shift. I’m not sure if a Coach was telling him to get back on the ice as would normally happen but he was going back on the ice regardless.

It should make for an interesting game four on Thursday night.

Pre-game